Every parent's joy is to see his child excel all areas of life including academically, making your children successful is not an easy task, it has to do with lots of commitment, hard work and Lot's of effort from you and your children, here are some tips on how you can help your children to attain academic excellence:

 

1. Don’t praise a child too much: Explain early on in life that everyone has different talents and that not everyone can get a trophy. Modern parents tend to over praise, which can lead to problems when children realise that they are not as ‘brilliant’ or ‘amazing’ as they thought they were. Over praising a child will make them proud of their achievement and can lead them to relent in their effort thinking they are the best of best. Children's achievement should be celebrated but let them know that they should not relent but put more effort.

2. Let them know that life is full of success and failure: We may take it for granted that success requires hard work and overcoming of obstacles but this is not necessarily obvious to children. If you take time to explain your experience of a learning curve it will help them connect hard work with future rewards. Let your children know that failure is just a stone step to success, they should not give up after a failure and they should not relax after a success, let them know this earlier in life.

3. Allow your child to pursue their passion: In a world of hyper specialisation it isn’t important – or even possible – to be good at everything. It’s more important to be excellent at a few things. So, if your child shows specific interest and takes a lot of joy in a certain topic at school, they will find it a lot easier to excel. As parents there is a natural tendency to worry about the things our children are less good at and allow them to get on quietly with the things they love. If Mathematics is their passion, don’t be afraid to encourage and let them know its positive impact. Spending time with them as they connect and enjoy a subject will also give insight into ways we can help transfer that joy to a less loved topic.

4. Make academic subjects feel relevant to your child: Often it is hard for a child to focus and truly enjoy a subject because they cannot see how has any relevance for their life or will help them in the future. Specific subjects are branded in their heads as something they need to do to keep the adults around them happy.

5. Make games part of their learning: If you can turn learning into a game, children, who are hard-wired to play, will respond and learn much more quickly. An entire area of psychology has developed to study this field. It’s called gameification, and the term is used to describe the action of turning something into a game in order to improve engagement. My own son sees a tutor to help him with his English. Some weeks he turns up, tired and disconnected, and the idea of completing a comprehension exercise is clearly a no-no. The tutor, who is also a trained child psychotherapist, regularly pushes aside the workbooks and suggests they play Hangman or Scrabble. His love of words has come on in leaps and bounds.

6. Give your child safe access to the internet: Historically, academic success has been founded on an ability to remember and regurgitate facts and figures. This is changing in our hyper-connected modern world where the answer to pretty much any question can be found at the click of a mouse. The ability to research and find answers to questions is as important as ever, if not more. The internet can be a powerful tool in learning this key skill. As parents there is a tendency to try to limit screen time as we often use iPads and PCs as virtual babysitters, something our children can switch on and give us a little space. This shouldn’t stop pro-actively scheduling computer time for educational purposes: so-called ‘tech for good time’ can be highly beneficial. Children with regular, education-focused internet access are at an advantage when it comes to exams according to this article 'Children with internet access at home gain exam advantage'

Follow these two easy steps:

i. Keep the computer in the living room: by having the computer in a public room of the house you can monitor what your children are doing and also more easily manage time limits.

ii. Install a protection tool: It’s vital that you have child security settings installed to enable you to relax and let your child research to their heart’s content without fear of them coming across inappropriate material. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Sky or BT, provide controls to help you filter or restrict content. You can install software packages, some are available for free, that can help you filter, restrict or monitor what your child can see online.

7. Encourage open and sincere communication: Encourage your child to express his opinion about what's going on with his education. Create an open atmosphere where he feels comfortable expressing his likes, dislikes or concerns. When he shares his opinion, make sure to validate his feelings – even if you disagree. When children feel like their opinion doesn't matter, or they're stuck, they're likely to disengage from the learning process. Good learners know their opinion matters and feel reassured that they can be open about their educational experience without being judged, put down, discouraged or ignored.

8.Introduce different types of learning techniques: Every child has learning preferences and styles that are best suited to their way of learning. Some children have a dominant learning style, while others prefer to learn using a mix of learning styles. There isn't necessarily one right or wrong learning style, or mix of learning styles. However, by helping your child discover his preferred learning styles, you can use techniques that will improve his rate and quality learning. There are seven fundamental learning styles: Visual, Auditory, Verbal, Physical, Logical (mathematical), Social and Solitary. For example, children who are visual learners learn best by seeing how things work. Conversely, children who are auditory learners learn best by listening to things being explained. For young children, it's beneficial to explore and employ different types of learnings styles.

9. Focus on what he's learning than his performance: Instead of asking your child how he did on his math test as soon as he gets home from school, have him teach you what he learned in math today. Focus on what your child is learning, as opposed to how he is performing. While performance is important, focusing on his learning experience will communicate to your child that actual learning is more important than test grades, results are not the most important thing, you're more concerned about him than you are about his performance andby focusing on his learning experience that day you'll provide him the opportunity to put into his own words his lesson and solidify what he's learned.

10. Make learning everyday: turning every day into a learning day may sound like a bit much, but it really isn't, if you go about it the right way. Whenever possible, encourage your child to explore the world around him, ask questions and make connections. Help him categorize, classify and thinking critically of what he sees and experiences. Turning every day into a learning day will help your child develop the internal motivation to learn in the classroom, at home or wherever he may be.

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